The present invention relates to a radio selective-paging system having a display function for displaying received message information on a screen, and a display method therefor.
The recent radio selective-paging system (pager) can receive a phone number, a short message, etc. from the calling side to then display thereof on the screen and also selectively receive various information provided from a manager of a calling communication network to then display thereof on the screen. For example, various information services such as news, weather forecast, stock information, etc. are provided from the manager of the calling communication network, and then the radio selective-paging system receives the received message of these information and selectively displays thereof on the screen.
As such radio selective-paging system, there is disclosed a system as an example, which has various functions for displaying the received messages which have not been read by the user yet (referred appropriately to as xe2x80x9cunread received messagexe2x80x9d hereinafter) on the screen to check various information (received messages) without fail. For instance, in the Japanese Patent No. 2748712 and the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-126824, there is disclosed a system which can prevent the user side from forgetting to read the received message by issuing the calling once again.
Also, in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. Hei 4-320119 and Hei 5-95322, and the Japanese Patent No. 2765348, there is disclosed the system which can issue information such that it prevents the user from forgetting to read the received message when the user straps on or unstraps his or her watch, or the user holds the radio selective-paging system by his or her hand or opens a lid of the system, etc. Further, in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-61920, and the Unexamined Japanese Utility Model Application Publication Nos. Hei 2-43035 and Hei 2-43037, there is disclosed the system which can inform the user at the alarm informing time, exactly at every hour, etc. such that it prevents the user from forgetting to read the received message. Moreover, in the unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-94006, there is disclosed the system which enables the user to easily check the attributes of remaining unread received messages including, the information category and piece number of the message, for example.
In the above radio selective-paging system, among the unread received messages supplied from the information services, such as news, weather forecast, stock information, etc., are necessary received messages, which correspond to the latest received message and a plurality of received messages containing the preceding received message. However, there is such a problem that, since an alarm is also issued to inform the user of the unread received messages such as old messages, which are of no value for the user, the above-mentioned system in the prior art is inconvenient for the user to handle.
The present invention has been made to overcome such subjects in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a radio selective-paging system which is capable of easily recognizing the piece number of unread received messages available for the user among received messages out of a large number of provided information, and also easily finding the unread received messages to improve the convenience for the user to use, and a display method therefor.
In order to achieve the above object, the radio selective-paging system set forth in aspect 1 of the present invention, comprises a radio receive processing means for receiving a selective calling signal and a message signal and storing message information based on the message signal; a message display processing means for reading stored message information in response to a display operation to display such message information; and a piece number-of-message display processing means for displaying piece numbers of new message information received during a period from the display operation to a succeeding display operation every attribute.
Also, the radio selective-paging system set forth in aspect 2 of the present invention, comprises a radio receiving means for receiving a selective calling signal and a message signal via radio; a message storing means for storing message information based on the message signal received by the radio receiving means; a displaying means for displaying the message information on a screen; an operating means for performing an display operation to display the message information on the screen; an adding means for adding piece numbers of new message information received until a succeeding display operation is performed after the message information have been displayed every attribute based on the display operation of the operating means, to count thereof; and a display controlling means for causing the displaying means to display a piece number of new message information counted by the adding means every attribute when the succeeding display operation is performed.
The display method for the radio selective-paging system set forth in aspect 3 of the present invention, comprises a radio receiving step of receiving a selective calling signal and a message signal via radio; a message storing step of storing message information based on the message signal received; a displaying step of displaying the message information on a screen; an adding step of adding piece numbers of new message information received until a succeeding display operation is performed after the message information have been displayed every attribute, in response to a display operation, to count thereof; and a piece number-of-message displaying step of displaying a piece number of new message information counted every attribute when the succeeding display operation is performed.
Also, the display method for the radio selective-paging system set forth in aspect 4 of the present invention, comprises a radio receiving step of receiving a selective calling signal and a message signal via radio; a message storing step of storing message information based on the message signal received; a displaying step of displaying the message information on a screen; an adding step of setting a predetermined adding period and then adding piece numbers of new message information received during the adding period for every attribute, in order to obtain a count thereof; and a piece number-of-message displaying step of displaying piece numbers of new message information for every attribute counted above.
In the radio selective-paging system set forth in aspects 1 and 2 and the display method for the radio selective-paging system set forth in aspect 3 of the present invention, the message information is stored based on the received message signal, then stored message information are read and displayed according to the display operation, and then the piece number of the new message information received from the display operation to the succeeding display operation is displayed for every attribute. Therefore, the user can easily check the piece number of every attribute (e.g. news) of the unread received messages among many information services such as the received messages, news, weather forecasts, stock information, and vacant seat information in the theaters, for example. As a result, the user can easily find the necessary unread received messages, and the convenience to handle a plurality of unread received messages can be improved.
In the display method for the radio selective-paging system set forth in aspect 4 of the present invention, the message information are stored based on the received message signal, then stored message information are read and displayed according to the display operation, and then the piece number of the message information received in the predetermined period is displayed. Therefore, the user can always easily and effectively check the piece number of the unread received messages for every attribute among the received message in the many information services. As a result, the user can easily find the necessary unread received messages, and the convenience in handling a plurality of unread received messages can be improved.
In the screen display, for example, the information contents of the received messages are displayed on the screen together with the mark for partitioning the attributes of the information contents of the received messages, the mark indicating that the information contents of the received messages have not been read yet, and the numerals indicating the piece number of the unread received messages. For example, if the already-read instruction operation indicating that the user has read the received messages is conducted, the numeral indicating the piece number of the unread received messages is decremented on the screen, and the mark indicating the unread state of the received messages is cleared when all unread received messages are read, and the numeral indicating the piece number of the unread received messages is updated into xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d.
As the display operation to display the received messages, the instruction input employed to display the new received messages on the screen can be recognized by, for example, the already-read instruction operation indicating that the user has read the received messages, the unread reading operation by which displays the received messages on the screen, the display clearing operation which clears the screen display of the received messages on the display unit, etc.
Not only is the piece number of the unread received messages for all attributes displayed on the screen, but also, the piece number of the unread received messages according to groups in which the attributes are collected may be displayed, otherwise a piece number representing the total number of unread received messages may be displayed. In addition, all piece numbers of the unread messages instead of the piece number of the received messages received between the display operations or received in the predetermined adding period may be displayed on the screen.
The screen display which is fitted for the situation can be selected by changing appropriately the screen display according to the employed situation, the choice of the user, etc. As a result, the convenience to handle can be improved.